When my parents came back from house hunting in Indiana, Mom described the house they had found as “the big house on the prairie”. She was right.
In some ways, it’s strange that God gave my parents a huge house on nearly 12 acres of land just as their kids would start leaving home. I would move away nine months later. As the next many years passed, various of my siblings would move out for one reason or another. Some would come back and move again, or stay for a while. Only recently have they actually become empty-nesters. Although their house is still full of all our belongings.
The big house on the prairie has grown bigger since my parents bought it. They extended the upstairs, creating two more bedrooms and enlarging my sister Sally’s room. We’ve watching the trees along the driveway grow taller and taller. The evergreen trees near the road are so big now you can’t see the fields from the road anymore. And the space! Well, my kids wear themselves out on visits to Grandpa and Grandma’s. It’s great.
The house has become a place where we gather for holidays, or summer days, or just because. Before I had kids and would come home from wherever I was living, it was a place to go for a week and do absolutely nothing. I miss those days. Now I have three kids to keep track of, but it is one of the only places I can sit down for a little while and enjoy at least pieces of conversation and laughter while my kids are quite busy running all over the place.
The house is large enough for all of us to be there: siblings, all the young cousins, aunts, whoever! Whether it’s nice enough to play outside or not. We’ve made lots of memories there and I’m sure we’ll make plenty more.
No comments:
Post a Comment